Adjustable dress



March 26, 1935. 1, GREENBERQ 1,995,423

ADJUSTABLE DRES 5 Filed Feb.26, 1934 Patented Mar. 26, 1935 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE ADJUSTABLE DRESS Irving Greenberg, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application February 26, 1934, Serial No. 713,032

2 Claims. (Cl. 2-76) My invention relates to womens dresses andparticularly to those that are manufactured in quantities and sold tothe trade as finished, ready to wear dresses.

The object of this invention is to improve the method of cutting andmanufacturing dresses for women so as to eliminate costly alterations atthe place of retailing the dresses, and to furnish the buyer of a readymade dress a better fitting garment than has been possible heretofore.

At the factory, dresses for women are cut according to standardizedmeasurements for each size and fitted on dummy figures or model forms.

In the making of the patterns and the cutting of the dresses,approximately a half inch of additional material is allowed for seams onall sides where the garment is to be stitched.

On one side of the dress, usually the left side of the wearer, anopening of about seven or eight inches is left which is finished with anarrow strip of material stitched on both sides of the opening on whichthe separable fasteners are sewn on.

A dress that fits the factory model form is considered a good fittingdress and ready for the market.

However, nature has not created woman according to the standardproportions of the factory model forms and while all the women in agiven group might have 39 inch hips and buy size 16 vary. I

The hips may be higher, or the waist line may vary from one to one andone-half inch smaller or larger than the standard measurements used inthe cutting of the dress at the factory.

This condition has brought about the specialization of certain types ofmeasurements, by some manufacturers, under different classificationssuch as Misses, Juniors, Half or Little Women's and womens sizes.

Therefore, a woman accustomed to wear a size 18 ready made dress inMisses sizes, can also wear, with slight alterations, a size 36 inWomens sizes, or a size 17 in Juniors sizes, or a size 18 in Half orLittle womens sizes, providing that she likes the design of theparticular dress.

.But since the same design is notmade in all the different sizeclassifications, most manufacturers specializing in only oneclassification, one can readily see the great number of cases requiringalterations to make such dresses wearable.

As dresses are cut and made at the present time with no provisions forready adjustments, costly alterations are necessary in most cases, or

dresses, other measurements of their bodies may,

the woman has to wear an imperfectly or ill fitting dress.

In my invention I provide means for the ready adjustment about the waistline of a dress to secure perfect fitting without alterations ashereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing andset forth in the claims.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 illustrates a perspective view of a dress as worn by a womanand embodying my invention.

Figure 2 is a side view of a dummy figure upon which has been assembled'the front and back foundation patterns of a dress embodying myinvention.

Figure 3 shows the foundation pattern embodying my invention, which isused for cutting the back portion of a dress and with modifications forcutting the front part of the dress.

Figure 4 is a pattern of a reinforcing piece attached to the extensionof the foundation pattern.

Figure 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view through one side of thewaist and reinforcing member.

Figure 6 is an illustration of the various forms that may be given tothe projection or extension of the main pattern and to the reinforcingpiece.

In general dress manufacturing, the front and the back of a dress,regardless of the number of pieces used or the form given to individualdecorative cuts and stitchings, are basically of an outline as shown bythe foundation pattern in Figure 3 with only slight differences betweenthe front and back outlines.

The edges of the back and front are stitched together along the lines 11forming the sides and along the lines 12 forming the shoulders of thedress.

The front pattern is modified as shown by the dash lines 14 and 16 ofFigure 3, the line 16 being often given various forms to suit the wishesof the designer.

The sleeves are stitched to the dress along the lines 13 and 14 and theneck line is trimmed or finished along the lines 15 and 16.

The dress thus assembled can be slipped over the head of the wearer butsince the bust measurements and the hip measurements are generallygreater than the waist line measurements, an opening 17 must be leftintermediate the bust and hip lines to facilitate dressing.

In the present dressmaking art, as heretofore noted, this opening 17 isedged with a narrow piece of material stitched to both the back andfront part of the dress, turned in and provided with separable fastenersto close the opening.

During the manufacturing process of a given size this dress is fitted ona standard dummy figure shown in Figure 2 having an approximate frontprofile 18 and back profile 19.

It can readily be seen that a dress fitting perfectly on a dummy figurewill not fit a wearer when the bust dimension is larger as at 20 orsmaller as at 21 or if the hip dimension is larger as at 22 or smalleras at 23.

A smaller bust or hip measurement will result in a loose, flabby fittingand a larger bust or hip measurement will result in a tight, stretchedfitting, both exceptions necessitating extensive alterations of thedress about the waistline to produce a perfect fit.

With my invention I avoid these alterations which are costly, and Iobtain a better fitting garment and I make it possible to either reduce,modify or eliminate the specialization of certain types of measurementsnow necessary and further make it possible for the retailer to carry instock a larger variety of designs with a smaller variety of specializedsizes of dresses.

To that end I provide an extension 25 from the side 11 of the foundationpattern, the form of which may be varied from that shown, by therequirements of the dress design or the wishes of the manufacturer asillustrated at 26 and 27 and 28 in Figure 6.

Regardless of the form taken by the extension 25, the basic side line ofthe foundation pattern remains on line 11.

It is therefore obvious that this extension 25 may be attached to thefoundation pattern by stitching along line 11, or it may be providedalong both sides of the pattern, or it may be placed on the right sideinstead of the left side of the pattern, or it may be attached to frontfoundation pattern as required by the particular design of the dress orthe wishes of the manufacturer, although I prefer to have this extension25 of one piece with the back-foundation pattern and to place it on theleft side of the a back of the dress of the wearer.

The slot or opening 1'7 and the extension 25 is made to extend from thebust to the hip lines, and is reinforced by the piece 29 shown in Figure4.

To the edge 30 of the extension 25 I secure by stitching the edge 31 ofthe reinforcing piece 29, after which this reinforcing piece is turnedunder and restitched to form a neat smooth edging as shown by thesection in Figure 5.

The front edge 32, forming the side of the opening 17 opposite to thatformed by the extension 25, is trimmed with a narrow piece of materialin accordance with present practice.

When a garment is manufactured as described herein the extension piece25 projects under the edge 32 forming the opposite side of opening 17and thereby prevents the exposure of undergarments.

The covering of undergarments at the opening 1'? is only a secondarypurpose of this invention,

the main purpose being to provide a sumciently large opening andsufficient extended material on one side of the opening to permit andfacilitate the perfect fitting of a garment without any alterationsother than the sewing on of the separable fasteners.

Therefore, when a garment embodying my invention is manufactured to fitthe standard size shown by the profiles 18 and 19 of the dummy figure inFigure 2, it can be readily adjusted to a person with the large bustmeasurement 20 by securing the separable fasteners to the extension 25along the line 40.

Similarly when the bust measurement is small as at 21 fasteners willfollow the line 41 and when the hip measurement is large as at 22 thefasteners will follow the line 42 and when the hip measurements aresmall as at 23 the fasteners will follow the line 43.

' The curvatures of the lines 40 to 43'incl. are exaggerated forpurposes of illustration while in reality these curvatures are hardlynoticeable.

It is obvious that under all these conditions and variations and otherstoo many to describe herein, the garment can be adjusted to obtain aperfect fit upon the wearer by simply securing one part of the separablefastener to the narrow edging 32 on one side of the opening 1'7 andsecuring the other part of the fastener to the reinforced extensionpiece 25 at such points as dictated by the needs of the fitting, havingat all times suflicient material to take up these contour variations andalso to conceal the undergarments along the opening 17.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. A dress comprising a waist portion, a skirt portion integraltherewith, said dress having an opening in a side seam, said openingextending longitudinally and intermediate the bust and hip lines only,one of the edges of said opening being finished and the-other providedwith an extension, said extension to be normally positioned beneath andoverlapped by the finished edge of the opening, means on the finishededge cooperating with means on the extension to form separable fastenerswhereby the opening is closed, the means on the extension being securedat predetermined positions whereby the closure is made along a linedictated by the profile of the wearer to obtain a perfect fitting dress.

2. A dress comprising a waist portion, a skirt portion integraltherewith, said dress having an opening in a side seam, said openingextending longitudinally and intermediate the bust and hip lines only,one of the edges of said opening being finished and the other providedwith an extension, a reinforcement on said extension, said extension tobe normally positioned beneath and overlapped by the finished edge ofthe opening, means on the finished edge cooperating with means on theextension to form separable fasteners whereby the opening is closed, themeans on the extension being secured at predetermined positions wherebythe closure is made along a line dictated by the profile of the wearerto obtain a perfect fitting dress.

, IRVING GREENBERG.

